This invention relates to apparatus and methods in which spectroscopy is used to analyse a sample, for example making use of the Raman effect.
The Raman effect is a phenomenon in which a sample scatters incident light of a given frequency, into a frequency spectrum which has lines caused by interaction of the incident light with the molecules making up the sample. Different molecular species have different characteristic Raman spectra, and so the effect can be used to analyse the molecular species present.
Prior arrangements of Raman analysis apparatus have been described in a paper "Raman Microprobe and Microscope with Laser Excitation", M. Delhaye and P. Dhamelincourt, Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, 3 (1975), 33-43, and also in our earlier International Patent Specification WO 90/07108, of which this application is a continuation-in-part. A sample is irradiated with monochromatic light from a laser, and the scattered light is analysed in order to select a particular line of the resulting Raman spectrum. The analysis may be performed by a dispersive device such as a diffraction grating, e.g. in a monochromator, or it may be performed as described in WO 90/07108 using a non-dispersive tunable filter. WO 90/07108 also discloses that the resulting Raman scattered light may be focused onto a charge-coupled device (CCD), which is a two-dimensional photo-detector array.
Other spectroscopic techniques are also known in which a sample is irradiated with monochromatic or even polychromatic light, and the light scattered is analysed. Examples include fluorescence spectroscopy and infra-red spectroscopy. The present invention is also applicable to such techniques.
It is possible to use such techniques in a confocal manner, in order to analyse only light scattered from a certain plane in the sample. This involves passing the scattered light through a spatial filter, comprising a very small pinhole (typically 10 .mu.m) at the focus of a lens system. Light scattered from the required plane is brought to a tight focus at the pinhole and passes through, whereas light from other planes is not so tightly focused and is blocked. However, such a spatial filter is difficult to set up correctly, because of the need for careful alignment of the optical components to ensure tight focusing of the scattered light on the very small pinhole. For the same reason, it is difficult to maintain the optical components correctly in alignment after the initial setting up, and the system is also susceptible to vibration. The alignment is particularly difficult to perform in systems where only very low levels of scattered light are available for analysis, such as Raman systems, since it is then impossible to see the focused light.